San Diego physician Jennings Staley sentenced in hydroxychloroquine scheme

In March and April of 2020, as the coronavirus spread and folks isolated in their houses, a physician in San Diego boasted that he had his fingers on a “miracle cure,” in keeping with prosecutors — hydroxychloroquine.

In mass-marketing emails from his business, Skinny Beach Med Spa, Jennings Ryan Staley mentioned the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” regardless of the medicine changing into more and more scarce. However Staley had a way of getting it, he later instructed an undercover federal agent. He planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder with the assistance of a Chinese supplier, prosecutors stated.

Staley was sentenced last week to 30 days in jail and a yr of home confinement for the scheme. He pleaded guilty last year.

“On the top of the pandemic, before vaccines have been obtainable, this doctor sought to revenue from patients’ fears,” U.S. Legal professional Randy Grossman mentioned in a news release. “He abused his place of belief and undermined the integrity of all the medical career.”

Staley’s legal professional did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.

How false hope unfold about hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 — and the consequences that adopted

Hydroxychloroquine is usually prescribed to folks with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and is used to deal with malaria. The drug was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump, starting within the early days of the pandemic, as a “game changer.” Trump’s endorsement precipitated demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and in the end affecting those that needed it for non-covid health problems. Studies later found that hydroxychloroquine is just not an efficient therapy for covid and did not forestall people from turning into sick.

In response to prosecutors, federal brokers began looking into Staley after involved clients alerted the FBI to the advertising and marketing emails from Skinny Seaside Med Spa. The business marketed “world-class magnificence innovations at reasonably priced prices,” court docket paperwork present, and offered providers including Botox, fats switch, hair elimination and tattoo removal.

The covid treatment equipment came with a 30-day “concierge medical expertise,” intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an additional price), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medicines, information present.

In late March 2020, an undercover agent responded to one of many emails and inquired about the remedy package, investigators said. When Staley and the agent spoke on the telephone quickly after, the physician falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “superb treatment” that might preserve somebody immune from covid for at the very least six weeks, in line with court docket records.

“It’s preventive and curative,” Staley stated to the undercover agent, court docket documents show. “It’s exhausting to believe, it’s virtually too good to be true. However it’s a exceptional medical phenomenon.”

He added that the virus “literally disappears in hours” after an individual takes the drug.

When asked by the agent whether the treatment was a “assured” treatment for covid, Staley said sure however qualified that “there’s all the time exceptions” and “there are not any ensures in life,” court information show.

Through the call, Staley additionally informed the agent how he was sourcing the hydroxychloroquine. He mentioned that he “got the last tank of hydroxychloroquine smuggled out of China,” data show, and that he “tricked customs” by labeling the barrel as “sweet potato extract.” He added that the powder was sufficient to make 8,000 doses in gelatin capsules.

Staley later provided the agent prescriptions for generic variations of Viagra and Xanax, a federally controlled substance, despite by no means asking him “any medical questions,” prosecutors said. The agent ordered six kits — enough for himself and 5 family members — for $4,000, based on courtroom documents.

A Florida man acquired hundreds of thousands in coronavirus support. He used it to purchase a Lamborghini, prosecutors say.

Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded responsible in July 2021. As a part of his plea agreement, Staley also admitted to posing as one in all his staff to fill a prescription for hydroxychloroquine to then use it in his kits, prosecutors said. And he agreed to accusations that he lied to federal agents in the course of the investigation.

“Dr. Staley supplied a ‘magic bullet’ — a assured treatment for COVID-19 to people gripped in fear throughout a global pandemic,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner said in a news launch when Staley pleaded guilty. “In the present day, Dr. Staley admitted it was all a lie as part of a rip-off to make a fast buck.”

As a part of his sentencing on Friday, Staley was ordered to pay a $10,000 nice and to present back the $4,000 the federal agent paid for his household’s kit. He also needed to hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical drugs, multiple baggage of empty tablet capsules, and a handbook capsule-filling machine,” prosecutors said.

In line with records from the medical board of California, Staley’s license has been briefly suspended by a court order.